


No-one Around to Care

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Silent Witness (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, implied/referenced child murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28714527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: The weight of the job gets to them all. Written for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020, Day 11, "Eleven Dark Tunnels".
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020





	No-one Around to Care

Nikki, more than any of them, stewed and suffered under the weight of grief and pain. And Clarissa, more than any of them, saw the depth of that pain. Of course, given that both Thomas and Jack at times had the emotional depth of puddles, Clarissa could hardly claim that was due to any great observational powers. _How much_ she saw? Now that was due to excellent observational skills.

Clarissa didn't need to know anything about the most recent deceased to come into the morgue to know that they were young and it was bad. 

It was in the way Nikki's voice trembled, just a little bit, on certain words. It came through in how Nikki's eyes glazed over while she looked at the computer screen, so that it looked like she was doing work but really she was lost in thoughts. It was painfully apparent in how Nikki smiled just that bit too wide for it to be a real smile.

And what it all meant was that Nikki Alexander, who normally wore her heart on her sleeve and openly admitted to how this job could wear her down, felt like she couldn't open up about how this was affecting her.

"How old?" Clarissa asked.

Nikki startled, confirming Clarissa's suspicions that she had been elsewhere mentally for the past five minutes. She made that face she pulled where she was considering stalling and then the expression disappeared.

"Thirteen."

"Kids are always the hardest," Clarissa said simply, opening up the floodgates for Nikki.

"He was just left in a railway tunnel, in the cold and the dark. Just..." Nikki shook her head.

"Like no-one cared?" Clarissa asked.

"Like no-one cared," Nikki repeated.

"You care," Clarissa said simply.

"That's not enough though, is it? He needed someone to care before he got to me, to us." Nikki's eyes began to glaze over again.

"Maybe someone did. Maybe they're looking for him right now?" Clarissa suggested.

"No." The sharp rebuttal was a surprise but with it came even more understanding.

Nikki had already finished the autopsy and seen what had happened to that poor boy for the length of his young life so far. There was nothing Clarissa could say to make any part of this easier for Nikki so she didn't even try.

Instead she moved over to Nikki and gently took hold of her hand. Nikki squeezed back.

Sometimes nothing was enough.


End file.
